MonikersOrlando, FL is where these homage paying punks call home. It's worth mentioning that they feature former guitarist of Discount and an ex-member of Kite Flying Society (previous drummer). On this recoding they are a three piece with Ryan Seagrist (insert stupid reference to Ryan Seacrest) playing guitar and singing, Mark is the bassist, and Tyler on drums. However, after recording the band added a new drummer named Scott and a new bassist named Jon Murray and moved Mark over to second guitar.
This 5 song EP could easily be mistaken for covers of Dillinger Four, The Lawrence Arms and Jawbreaker if you didn't know any better. It's actually a bit disturbing how much the singer sounds like the guy from TLA. There are plenty of foot tapping riffs and pulsing bass lines that outline the bands sound extremely well.
The lyrics are good shit, and although they aren't ground breaking, they come off sincere and emotional (it's a shame retarded morons had to hijack a once good term). "Mirror Images", which is about a girl who takes diet pills to look like what the media tells her she should look like. "Two Stories" is a song about being over a girl but still having thoughts of her come back now and again, not new but it's written well and is something a lot of people can relate to without being a whiny cry baby song.
The album was self recorded by the band at the old drummers old residence, and then mixed in his new home. I must say, this thing sounds good, it captures the band's energy with a raw sound that doesn't sacrifice too much quality. It's a tad rough around the edges but I don't think a super polished recording would've helped these guys at all, so it fits what they are doing well. The bass tone is warm and has good presence in the mix, the guitar tone sounds good as well. The drums are on point, the kick could've used a little more volume and the snare was a bit distant but overall good. And I liked the vocal placement as well.
I'm really liking this ones layout. Whenever you turn images of innocence and childhood into something evil looking it conjures up a certain subconscious emotion. The mother dressed in attire fitting of a housewife from the 50's devouring entrails from her handsome young baby is just fucking awesome. The denim blue background with the maroon band logo are perfectly contrasted. Rather than displaying the lyrics to the songs in the booklet, the band opted to use the space to display a dual page drawing of mutated conjoined twin who looks normal otherwise, pulling the plug of a crazy looking fictional animal from the socket. A different approach, the band used the tray to display the lyrics. The drawings of the band members on the back of the booklet, which look like something you'd see in office clip art were cool too.
Rating: 3/5
Sections Worthy of Replay: Information
Synopsis: If you like the bands mentioned in this review you will definitely want to pick this one up, it's a mere 4.50 from the label. Be on the looking for a limited 7" on Art Of The Underground, which is a part of the label's limited single series.